Apparatus and method for ray tracing with grid primitives

Abstract

Apparatus and method for ray tracing acceleration using a grid primitive. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a grid primitive generator to generate a grid primitive comprising a plurality of adjacent interconnected primitives; a bitmask generator to generate a bitmask associated with the grid primitive, the bitmask comprising a plurality of bitmask values, each mask value associated with a primitive of the grid primitive; a ray tracing engine comprising traversal and intersection hardware logic to perform traversal and intersection operations in which rays are traversed through a hierarchical acceleration data structure and intersections between the rays and one or more of the adjacent interconnected primitives identified, wherein the ray tracing engine is to read the bitmask to determine a first set of primitives from the grid primitive on which to perform the traversal and intersection operations and a second set of primitives from the grid primitive on which the traversal and intersection operations will not be performed.

Description

BACKGROUNDField of the Invention[0001]This invention relates generally to the field of graphics processors. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing more efficient ray tracing operations.Description of the Related Art[0002]Ray tracing is a technique in which a light transport is simulated through physically-based rendering. Widely used in cinematic rendering, it was considered too resource-intensive for real-time performance until just a few years ago. One of the key operations in ray tracing is processing a visibility query for ray-scene intersections known as “ray traversal” which computes ray-scene intersections by traversing and intersecting nodes in a bounding volume hierarchy (BVH).[0003]Denoising has become a critical feature for real-time ray tracing with smooth, noiseless images. Rendering can be done across a distributed system on multiple devices, but so far the existing denoising frameworks all operate on a single instance on a s...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes an invention that improves the efficiency of ray tracing operations in graphics processors. Ray tracing is a technique for simulating the transport of light in a computer system. The invention addresses the issue of denoising, which is the process of removing noisy elements from an image. The invention proposes a method for performing denoising operations across multiple devices and utilizing machine learning to continuously train and update the denoising engine during runtime. The technical effects of the invention include improved performance and quality of real-time ray tracing, as well as more efficient and effective denoising operations.

Problems solved by technology

Widely used in cinematic rendering, it was considered too resource-intensive for real-time performance until just a few years ago.

If rendering is being done across multiple devices, they may not have all rendered pixels accessible for computing a denoised portion of the image.

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